Over the past nine months, Tehran has had 41 days of unhealthy air. The omnipresent smog has compelled urban authorities to revisit the measures for curbing air pollution that has been in place for several years.
One such scheme that has been in place for over a decade is the odd-even rule introduced in 2005. Over the past few weeks, environmentalists and planners with Tehran Municipality have got together to pool minds and discuss the impact of this restriction on air quality.
According to data released by Tehran Air Quality Control Company (airnow.tehran.ir), since the beginning of the current fiscal in March, the capital saw 41 days of unhealthy air quality that poses a risk to sensitive groups, 218 moderate days and barely 15 days of clean air. The report is based on the Air Quality Index.
AQI categorizes conditions based on the amount of polluting matters into good (0-50), moderate (51-100), unhealthy for sensitive groups (101-150), unhealthy (151-200), very unhealthy (201-300) and hazardous (301-500).
As per the odd-even rule, cars are only allowed to enter the designated ‘restricted zone’ on alternate days depending on the odd and even number of the license plate. The restricted zone is an 88.5 square kilometer area in central Tehran limited by Imam Ali Expressway in the east, Navvab Expressway and Chamran Highway in the west, Besat Expressway in the south and Hemmat Expressway in the north. Saturday is earmarked for cars with the last even digit and Friday, being the weekend, is not included in the scheme.
Revoking the Scheme
The TM’s director of transport and traffic organization says, “A short time after its introduction, the odd-even scheme helped curb air pollution. However as time passed the scheme has simply lost its usefulness with unwanted results. The pollution and smog has intensified,” ISNA reported.
“The scheme will be discussed in depth at the High Council for Coordination of Urban Traffic and could be revoked come March,” Mohsen Pour Seyed Aqaei said.
He added that the TM has looked at the scheme in detail and its impact on air quality over the past several months. “TM results TM show that mismanagement and improper implementation of the odd-even scheme has had an adverse effect on the air quality. And by the way, this odd-even rule was initially planned to be a temporary measure to help curb air pollution only during crisis times.”
Director of Tehran Air Quality Control Company Hossein Shahidzade says, “According to the latest studies, the odd-even scheme has failed to deliver. Instead of the vehicles’ number plates, their conformity with emission standards should be the basic condition for barring them.”
In-Depth Analysis
ISNA has discussed the scheme and its impact with traffic expert Mardan Heidari.
“With cars banned from entering the restricted zone, many switched to motorcycles,” Heidari notes. Initially, the two-wheelers were not barred from the restricted areas. Even after limits were introduced for their commute in the zone, many bikers kept plying the area in total disregard for the rules.
Barred from using their own cars in the restricted areas, and given the poor quality of urban transport, many started using “taxi bike services”, Heidari recalled.
An estimated 2.5 million carburetor-equipped motorcycles ply Tehran’s almost permanently clogged roads. As they are not equipped with catalyst converters and release toxic fumes into the environment, the amount of fumes each motorbike spews into the air equals that of eight vehicles with Euro 3 emission standards. The added problem is that such bikes are fuel-intensive.
As if this was not enough, the outdated motorbikes are the number one culprits in creating noise pollution. It is estimated that in Tehran motorbikes have a 25% share in creating air pollution and cause almost half the noise pollution in and around the metropolis that has expanded in fall four directions.
Heidari notes that many executive agencies, guilds and thousands of companies have their headquarters in the restricted area.
Staff of these organizations and companies are generally among the well-to-do residents of Tehran and can afford to buy more than one car. Most of them prefer to drive to office. When the odd-even restriction set in, many rushed to buy a second car. Why? If their first car had a number plate ending with an odd digit they bought a car with an even number! Thus they are able to use their own cars to work every day.
Heidari said what happened was that “This led to a steep increase in car ownership in Tehran,” a metropolis that has metamorphosed into a monstrous parking lot, to say the least.
Gargantuan Parking Lot
For all practical purposes, Tehran has become one huge parking lot. More than four million vehicles commute on its permanently clogged roads and alleys, a figure that according to a former traffic official is eight times over and above the nominal capacity.
Maziar Hosseini says, “Tehran’s roads and freeways at the most can handle 750,000 vehicles. However, more than four million cars ply the roads…”
One can only imagine what happens on the roads every working day and how the people of the city suffer. Add to this the time, money, and energy lost to the dirty air and traffic congestion.
The worsening traffic has become a torture because the public transport system is not enough to meet the growing needs of the bustling metropolis of 8 million people.
According to official figures, the daily influx of people means the ‘daylight’ population of Tehran jumps to more than 15 million – almost a fifth of the total population of 80 million.
The municipality says 19 million daily trips are made in the capital on any working day and night. Lack of quality and efficient public transport is the primary reason behind the 24/7 torment!
Tehran’s public transport includes city buses, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), subway system, and taxis. However, many areas still suffer from a lack of sufficient and decent services.
The subway system comprises six main lines (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 – line 3 and 7 have yet to be completed) with nearly 100 stations. Line 6 is under construction. Tehran Metro company in its latest report said 3.8 million commuters use the subway on a daily basis.
Is this really enough for a megacity like Tehran that has grown so big that avaricious builders have dug deep holes in the northern mountains for new and expensive dwelling places for the rich? The answer is obvious.
Hosseini concurs that “Tehran’s traffic has become unbearable. There is traffic congestion in every major city in the world… but it is controlled and managed.”
The former TM official says, “Many of our roadways are old and were not built for this many cars. Simply put, many of the roads date back to the time when there were not many vehicles on the streets” and Tehran’s population was in the region of three million.
During the past ten years, the number of cars commuting on Tehran’s roads has spiked—the number was 1.5 million in 2005. By the end of 2014, there were 213 motor vehicles per 1,000 people in Iran. According to data released by the Ministry of Industries, the figure now is 250 in Iran. The number is much higher in Tehran and is estimated to be 307 cars per 1,000 residents.
APR Plan
Introducing strict traffic schemes, rehabilitating the dilapidated public transport fleet and improving the quality of gasoline have been among measures taken to help curb air pollution and traffic congestion.
The latest measure implemented by TM is the Air Pollution Reduction (APR) launched last month, as per which old cars have been banned and violators are fined in the latest bid to improve air quality.
All four and two-wheelers in the metropolis must go for the mandatory automotive inspections and acquire technical conformity papers that show the vehicle is fit for the road and meets the automotive and emission standards.
Taking a step further, the secretary general of the High Council of Traffic has called for moving the bar higher and upgrading vehicle emission rules.
Pouria Yazdi told ISNA last week that vehicle emission standards and automotive tests carried out at technical inspection centers are old and outdated. “The standards and the tests were last revised in 2014.”
Independent observers and environmentalist are of the opinion that the introduction of stringent measures like the APR, along with overhauling the public transport network can help reduce air pollution and the nerve-racking traffic congestion.
